Electricity Power Demand Comparative Analysis of District Cooling and Conventional Cooling Systems - Case Study in Diyar Al Muharraq (DAM) Development Project)

Bahrain one of Arabian Gulf countries is located in warm to harshly hot climate throughout most of the year with short moderate winter. The cooling demand does consume around 60% of the electricity during peak summer and with the on-going global warming past few years have consistently registered new heat records. There are various new cities being reclaimed on the sea to cope with local population demands, of which new infrastructure including electricity is needed. Bahrain is already having total electricity capacity of 4,025 MW, which is very large compared to the country size. The government would be facing requirement to increase or connect consistent high electricity loads to new developments if the conventional air cooling (AC) continuous, including to this case-study in Diyar Al Muharraq (DAM) one of the largest reclaimed on-going new development projects stretching over 13 km2. However, it is proven through previous studies that 30% or more of electricity consumption can be saved by using District cooling (DC) systems depending on multiple parameters including targeted customers location, types and demand and cooling demand pattern, efficiency of conventional AC systems being implemented in concerned area. This present work done to investigate potential usage of DC in DAM project for reducing electricity demand that is one of the strategic challenges in local and regional levels considering the generation is mostly from petroleum sources primarily by burning natural gas, which have negative impact towards environment. The conclusion is that with current local conditions, and above stated parameters, the DC does provide around 33-35% electricity reduction.